The Grass Is Greener Festival Founders Sued By Investors

Oli Frost and Johnny Eddings, who ran the Grass Is Greener music festival, have been sued in a debt recovery claim by DN Holdings. Their five companies have also been named in the lawsuit.

In October 2022, the festival’s Geelong and Canberra events were cancelled as some of its headliners had withdrawn from dates on the Gold Coast and Cairns.

At the time, organisers confirmed the shows had been axed and that ONEFOUR, Ty Dolla $ign, ZHU and Maya Jane Coles would not be playing the remaining two shows.

In July 2023, The Grass Is Greener festival entered liquidation – just months after it went into administration. The company behind the festival, Hand Picked Events and Marketing, went into liquidation with liquidators BCR Advisory.

Now, the legal troubles for the festival have escalated, with the Gold Coast Bulletin reporting that an investor is seeking repayment from Frost and Eddings of a $1.2 million loan.

David Nicholas’ DN Holdings filed the paperwork in the Brisbane Supreme Court in September 2024. DN Holdings is the largest creditor of Hand Picked Events and Marketing.

Nicholas, best known as The Captain Davo, is seeking an order from the court that Hand Picked Events and Marketing repay the seven-figure loan in full, plus interest and costs.

DN Holdings alleges that their original arrangement with Frost and Eddings was amended shortly before the festival faced its cancellations in 2022. The pair “wholly” deny the claims presented by DN Holdings.

As noted above, the Grass Is Greener’s Geelong and Canberra events were axed in late 2022.

After initially launching in Cairns to 4,000 punters, the festival grew to allow 8,000 attendees at its Cairns festival. Four years into its tenure, the festival expanded to include the Gold Coast.

The 2022 event was set to expand further and include Canberra and Geelong. Those events were cancelled after ONEFOUR and the additional headliners pulled out of the festival.

At the time, organisers cited rising costs, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and unpredictable weather as contributing factors to the cancellation.

“As we believe in honesty and ethical practice, we also believe in sharing the circumstances truthfully with you,” they said in a statement.

“The reason for cancellation doesn't rest upon a single factor. Rather, it's related to the culmination of multiple elements that have affected not only us but our industry partners and siblings across the entire event industry in the COVID/post-lockdown period.”

They added, “Festivals start being planned at least 12 months in advance. After a successful 2021 campaign in Cairns, Townsville, Toowoomba, Mackay, and Gladstone, we were excited to finally take TGIG to other states, and expand nationally. Like many others, we expected purchasing behaviour to return to pre-pandemic levels, curating a lineup that we felt our loyal customers deserved.

“In that time, there have been staggering, exponential cost increases across the board from staging, production and site infrastructure to security, portable toilets and more.

“We've been running large-scale events for seven years, and have not - during this time - seen such sharp increases within such a short period. This has drastically affected our planning to an unprecedented degree.

“Understandably so, consumer confidence and purchasing behaviours have completely changed. With so many reschedules and the nature of conditions over the past two years, we understand why, too.”